Casaliva Olives
The elegant olive of Lake Garda: one of Italy’s most delicate oils, with notes of almond and grass.
The Casaliva is the great olive of Lake Garda, in northern Italy — about as far north as the olive can be grown, warmed by the lake’s mild microclimate. It gives one of Italy’s most refined oils: delicate and elegant, with fresh almond, green herb and a gentle, balanced bitterness. The famous Garda DOP oils are built on it.
- Origin
- Lake Garda · Italy
- Type
- Oil olive
- Colour
- Green to black
- Flavour (oil)
- Delicate, almond, herb
- Climate
- Northernmost olive country
- Reputation
- Garda DOP oils
- Best for
- Fine, elegant finishing oil
The olive of the lake
Garda sits far north of the usual olive belt, but the great body of water keeps the frost at bay, and the olive has thrived on its shores for centuries. The Casaliva is the result — a cool-climate olive giving a notably light, elegant, fragrant oil, all almond and fresh-cut grass with a soft bitter-pepper finish. It is the antithesis of a fierce southern oil, and a connoisseur’s delight.
Garda oil is small-production and premium — its delicacy and its scarcity both push the price up. A real Garda DOP Casaliva is a fine, elegant oil for delicate dishes, not an everyday cooking oil. Look for the DOP and a recent harvest, and treat it gently.